See other Science/Tech Articles
Title: Acorn Watchers Wonder What Happened to Crop
Source:
[None]
URL Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy ... 008/11/29/AR2008112902045.html
Published: Dec 1, 2008
Author: Brigid Schulte
Post Date: 2008-12-01 15:27:56 by Yellow Cake
Keywords: None
Views: 158
Comments: 9
Acorn Watchers Wonder What Happened to Crop The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County couldn't find any acorns. None. No hickory nuts, either. Then he went out to look for himself. He came up with nothing. Nothing crunched underfoot. Nothing hit him on the head. Then calls started coming in about crazy squirrels. Starving, skinny squirrels eating garbage, inhaling bird feed, greedily demolishing pumpkins. Squirrels boldly scampering into the road. And a lot more calls about squirrel roadkill. But Simmons really got spooked when he was teaching a class on identifying oak and hickory trees late last month. For 2 1/2 miles, Simmons and other naturalists hiked through Northern Virginia oak and hickory forests. They sifted through leaves on the ground, dug in the dirt and peered into the tree canopies. Nothing. "I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe," he said. "But this is not just not a good year for oaks. It's a zero year. There's zero production. I've never seen anything like this before." The absence of acorns could have something to do with the weather, Simmons thought. But he hoped it wasn't a climatic event. "Let's hope it's not something ghastly going on with the natural world." To find out, Simmons and Arlington naturalists began calling around. A naturalist in Maryland found no acorns on an Audubon nature walk there. Ditto for Fairfax, Falls Church, Charles County, even as far away as Pennsylvania. There are no acorns falling from the majestic oaks in Arlington National Cemetery. "Once I started paying attention, I couldn't find any acorns anywhere. Not from white oaks, red oaks or black oaks, and this was supposed to be their big year," said Greg Zell, a naturalist at Long Branch Nature Center in Arlington. "We're talking zero. Not a single acorn. It's really bizarre." Zell began to do some research. He found Internet discussion groups, including one on Topix called "No acorns this year," reporting the same thing from as far away as the Midwest up through New England and Nova Scotia. "We live in Glenwood Landing, N.Y., and don't have any acorns this year. Really weird," wrote one. "None in Kansas either! Curiouser and curiouser." Jennifer Klepper of Annapolis even blogged about it. "Last year our trees shot down so many acorns that you were taking your life into your own hands if you went outside without a crash helmet on," she wrote this month. "But this year? Forget it." Louise Garris lives in an Arlington neighborhood called Oakcrest, which is home to towering oak trees. When she couldn't find any acorns, she began putting out peanuts for the squirrels. Last year, oaks in metropolitan Washington produced a bumper crop of acorns, and squirrels and other urban wildlife produced an abundance of young. This year, experts said, many animals will starve. Garris started calling nurseries. "I was worried they'd think I was crazy. But they said I wasn't the only one calling who was concerned about it," she said. "This is the first time I can remember in my lifetime not seeing any acorns drop in the fall and I'm 53. You have to wonder, is it global warming? Is it environmental? It makes you wonder what's going on." Simmons has a theory about the wet and dry cycles. But many skeptics say oaks in other regions are producing plenty of acorns, and the acorn bust here is nothing more than the extreme of a natural boom-and-bust cycle. But the bottom line is that no one really knows. "It's sort of a mystery," Zell said.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Yellow Cake (#0)
Huh! There's a ton of'em for the tree-rats here.
They vacated No. Va.
Morris Dancing - put your ass up in the air
global warming I'm sure. Interesting that last year it was bees, this year acorns. Maybe it's the chemtrails?
I think that they all moved to Austin.
I saw this article on a rare, and regrettable, vist to msnbc. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition SILENT RUNNING There has to be a political joke here somewhere: Squirrel Union NOT happy that campaign promises are being broken already... "Do we want more Acorns? When do we want them - Now!" "Can we have more acorns now? Yes - We - Can!" As the rallying cries of campaign promises still echo through the trees, the sad reality is, the Oak Tree Bailout is dead in Congressional Committee.
Morris Dancing - put your ass up in the air
LOL
No acorns, pecans, or pears here this fall. But then, we had a real bumper crop last year so a slack year was expected this year.
In the North SF Bay Area, Live oaks are putting out an average crop, most deciduous Oak species are lighter than normal. Black Walnuts are sporadic and English Walnuts were a bust. All attributable to the 19 degree night we had on April 21.
#2. To: lodwick (#1)
#3. To: Yellow Cake, *Agriculture-Environment* (#0)
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss — The Who
#4. To: Yellow Cake (#2)
#5. To: Yellow Cake (#0)
Chemtrails anyone? BTW, the oaks (at my house now taken over by my ex-wife) have put forth no acorns this year here either.
"Corporation: An entity created for the legal protection of its human parasites, whose sole purpose is profit and self-perpetuation." ~~ IndieTx
#6. To: IndieTX, lodwick, farmfriend, all (#5)
#7. To: Yellow Cake (#6)
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss — The Who
#8. To: Yellow Cake (#0)
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#9. To: Yellow Cake (#0)
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest